City of two teams

I’m visiting this city where I always get lost, the capital of Lombardia, Milano (in Italian), Milan (in English), Mailand (in German).

On my way south, I had a connection at the fucking Frankfurt Airport. Many times I've promised myself to never go there again. But it's one of the major connection points in Europe, and hard to avoid. We came in late, due to capacity problems in Frankfurt, as usual. I ran like Hell to get from Terminal B to Terminal A, down 4 stairs, across a long transport band, and up 4 stairs on the other side. I made it just in time.

The plane to Milano was packed. Lots of Italians of course. Japanese tourists with face masks covering mouth and nose; afraid of being poisoned in Europe? A young girl with bright-blue hair; cute. An orthodox Jew with iPod; I wonder what kind of music he was listening to. I leaned back in my seat with a good read, On Writing by Stephen King.

Milano is completely flat, located on the plains of River Po. There’s no fjord or hill, unlike my hometown, no mountains in the west, unlike Denver. It's just flat, and damn hard to keep track of directions, in particular when the sun is hidden behind the clouds. Thanks to the metro system, I can usually find my way back to the hotel.

This is a city of two teams. If you know anyhing about European football (soccer), you know what that means. Some well known examples are Manchester (City and United), Liverpool (Everton and Liverpool FC), Glasgow (Rangers and Celtic), Madrid (Atletico and Real), and Milano (Inter and AC Milan).

Arriving at the Linate Airport, I passed the aggressive pirate-taxi drivers hanging around the exit, with "special prize for you", and walked over to the line with the reliable White Cabs. When you jump into a taxi, there is never any doubt which team the driver supports, the car always decorated in the colors of his team, black and red (AC Milan) or black and blue (Inter).

I’m here just for a two days, on a business trip. Unfortunately, there is no time to watch AC Milan on San Siro Stadium, nor a Verdi performance on La Scala. I hope I’ll get a tour of downtown Milano, to see the magnificent Duomo, the huge cathedral from the 15th century.

Tonight, I'm going out to get some good Italian food and a beer >:)

(I took the picture above from the roof of the Duomo a couple of years ago. It's a crap picture, taken with my cell-phone camera.)

Watching downhill

It was a beatuiful morning; clear blue sky, but cold and windy. We walked from the car to the lift, carrying our skis on the shoulder. Little Boy lagged behind. I turned around.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting my skis on.”
“Not yet”, I said, “we take the gondola.”
“No, we go by the chair lift. The line for the gondola is too long”, said Little Boy.

We went by the double-quad chair lift, shivering in the cold wind, 10 meters above ground. We looked down on the race course below, where lots of people were working. The course crew mounted double and triple safety nets on both sides. The TV crew rigged camera towers along the course.
“What’s going on?” asked Little Boy
“There’s a World-Cup downhill race next weekend.”
“Can we watch it?”
“No, we’re going home on Thursday. We can watch it on TV.”

I’ve seen pro downhill live only once. It was the World Championship in Beaver Creek, in the famous Birds of Prey course, more than ten years ago, when we lived in Colorado. We were down on the race arena. The racers came down the last hang at 120 km (75miles) per hour before crossing the finish line. It took less than 3 seconds. Then we waited a minute or two for the next one.

“Can’t we just stay a few more days?” asked Little Boy.
“No. I’m teaching Friday morning. Maybe we can watch some of the practise tomorrow”
“I want to see the race.” Little Boy was disappointed.

“Watching downhill live is just boring”, I said, “It’s best on TV” >:)

(When we approached the top lift station, my face felt stiff in the cold wind. I took off my right glove, just for a few seconds. I snatched the camera from my pocket, and was barely able to take the picture above, before my hand froze to ice.)

Too early on a Saturday

Getting up at 7 in the morning on a Saturday, can you imagine. I can't, unless I have to. This morning I had to.

Little boy had a Super G race today, in our local resort. Course inspection from 8, race start at 9. The Super G races always start early. Super G is the 2nd fastest alpine racing dicipline (after downhill). Therefore, we want to get most of the race completed before the regular opening hours in the ski center.

I'm always a little bit anxous before the Super G races (and downhill), because of the high speeds involved. The kids love it, and it's not something they can do every day. It's feasible only in organized practise and races.

The race went fine, fortunately no crashes, and no injuries. Little boy's first comment after he crossed the finish line was: "I wanna do it one more time".

Tomorrow it's giant slalom. The race doesn't start before 11 o'clock, fortunately >:)

I took the pictura above today. It's right out of the start gate, since I assisted little boy when he prepared for the race, warming up, taking off the jacket an pants and so on

Bernard Pivot Blogfest

I got to know about this blogfest at East for Green Eyes by Rosie C. A quick and easy task, just answer the ten questions below, first asked (and possibly answered) by French journalist Bernard Pivot, hence the name Bernard Pivot Blogfest.

Here are the questions, and my answers:

1. What is your favorite word? Snow, the white gold.

2. What is your least favorite word? Procurement.

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
o Creatively: When I'm right about to solve a challenging math-problem.
o Spiritually: Black-metal concerts with lots of pyro and stage effects.
o Emotionally: I'm not gonna reveal my fetishes and preferences here, but if you ask I might answer >;D

4. What turns you off? I'm never turned off >:)

5. What is your favorite curse word? Any word that calls for the Devil. In Satan we trust >:)

6. What sound or noise do you love? The sound of a white-water river in the mountains

7. What sound or noise do you hate? Shopping-mall pop music.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Author or heavy-metal drummer. Also, I enjoy teaching math and physics, but I'm doing that part-time already.

9. What profession would you not like to do? Lawyer; it appears to be incredibly boring.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Hay, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to the other place!

(The picture above is from my white collection. I took it last spring, when I was cross-country skiing in the north. I have no idea who the remote skier in the picture is.)

Ski-zophrenia

Another great weekend on the slopes, blue sky, dry cold snow and good skiing conditions.

Both kids had competitions, alpine racing for the little one and freestyle for the older. The cometitions took place at the same time, but at different places in the ski resort. It's the kind of schedule that makes dad schizophrenic.


Saturday older boy had a slopestyle competition, and little boy was in a giant slalom race. After his 2nd run, we jumped straight on the chair lift to the top of the mountain, and skied down on the other side. We just made it to see older boy's last two runs in the slopestyle finals. His mother, fortunately, attended the entire slopestyle competition.

Sunday older boy had a big-air competition. I dropped him off by the freestyle park in the morning, and went to the slalom course for little boy's race. I assisted him on the course inspection, and served as gate judge during the race.

Before the slalom race was over, older boy called and told he had finished 3rd in the big-air final. Good boy. He's old enough to manage on his own.

It makes things a little bit easier >:)

(I took both pictures yesterday, with less than two hours between, in little boys first run in the giant slalom, and older boys last run in the slopestyle final)

Bayes' rule

I'm working late tonight. There are two things I have to do: Preparing for a meeting next week (boring), and preparing a lecture for tomorrow morning (fun).

The subject I'm gonna teach tomorrow is Bayesian inversion. It's based on the so-called Bayes' rule of mathematical statistics. Bayes' rule is (of course) named after Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) who discovered this relation.

Thomas Bayes was a theologist and mathematician. During his lifetime, he published two articles, one on theology, and one on mathematics. Bayes rule, however, was published after his death. He never got the chance to appreciate the fame it earned him.

Bayes rule is about how a probability distribution is changed if we add some extra information. I'll try to explain. Consider to random variables:

(A): Kids like the dinner and don't complain
(B): We have pizza for dinner

The probability of (A), kids like the dinner is maybe 60% in our family. However, given (B), we have pizza for dinner, the probability is a lot higher. That's easy.

The opposite (or inverse) question is harder. If (A), kids like the dinner, what's the probability of (B), we have pizza for dinner? The kids like other things too, for instance taco and pasta and steak. This question does not have a unique answer.

But if we add the extra information that we have Taco every Friday, pizza every Saturday, and pasta and steak at most once a month, it's a little bit easier. If kids like the dinner, we probably have either pizza or taco. Still we have two equally probable answers (pizza or taco), but the last two (pasta and steak) are less probable.

You see what I mean? Cool, isn't it >:)

(The picture is Bayes rule, where P is the probability and A and B as above. I wrote it down on a sheet of paper and put it on the scanner. Tomorrow I'm gonna write it on the blackboard for the students)

Völkl GS Racing

Little boy wrecked his giant slalom skis last week. Today he had to go to skiing practice on his twintip (freestyle) skis, in the beginning at least.

I went to the ski shop and bought him a brand new pair of Völkl GS Racing skis with Marker bindings. Excellent junior racing skis.

Guess who was happy, when I caught him by the lift and told him to change skis.

I get happy too, when I see a face like that >:)